The big cleanup dustup that need not be

Whether home or away it is impossible to not notice leaf-blowing activity. Leaf-blowing activity: no big deal, right? Think again.

For starters, I just don’t see where the area supposedly being leaf-blower cleaned is actually being ridded of debris and/or dirt and/or dust. It is my observation that debris and/or dirt and/or dust gets airborne and is sent elsewhere making it someone else’s problem.

I mean who uses a leaf blower when doing interior cleaning? No one I can think of. And, if this is the case, why leaf-blow: period?

Would you believe for convenience and/or time-saving purposes?

Next, what is the leaf-blowing activity doing to the air and people’s health? It can’t be helping matters; that’s for sure. What this activity does do is make air dirtier. The way I see it: it’s a double whammy. The blowing activity not only enables debris and/or dirt and/or dust plume development, but if the device itself is gasoline powered, then corresponding exhaust emissions become airborne and if inhaled, need I say more?

At the end of the day or even during it, for me, a broom with dustpan and rake suffice just fine. The key here is debris, dirt, dust removal. The exact reason behind my sweeping up grass and other yard cuttings when such finds its way into street gutters or on sidewalks, which is then placed into the green-waste bin for pickup and removal.

But, that’s just the half of it. The other half, of course, is that there are fewer particles being kicked up as a result of sweeping compared to leaf blowing.

Of ‘law’ and dis-‘order’

So, speaking of sweeping, I had made it a practice of placing my trash, recycle and green waste bins on the sidewalk by the street curb until such time that I was approached by an area sanitation worker advising me that I would need to start placing the bins in the street instead. Apparently, sidewalk-based bin placement resulted in bin damage being incurred from waste-pickup-haulage trucks during the container-pickup-and-emptying process. This is how I understand it. So, I now comply.

What I don’t get, however, is why city street sweepers sweep streets the day before the waste gets picked up. If anything, shouldn’t said street-sweeping activity occur the day after pickup? It just seems the logical thing to do.

I can’t help but believe others too have noticed this, what I will refer to as a “scheduling misstep.” If ever there were a “cart-before-the-horse” case, this would be it. I think so.

1 thought on “The big cleanup dustup that need not be”

I see your point. Blowing dust away is useless and will just leave problem to others. But I guess if you use the blower the right way it could help better through blowing this debris in one place and that’s the only you get all this dirt.